Friday 18 May 2018

Necromunda 2017 and Dracula's America in Space


A couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to meet up with my good friend Cheetor/Sho3box. Now both of us have played our fair share of Necromunda from its initial release up until the past years with the Inquisimunda add-on but both of us had yet to really test Necromunda 2017.

Now the game is a sort of 'go to' for many of us, it's a game that 'feels' natural to us but that means we might miss the difference and changes in the new version by just repeating what we know.
That's why we decided to first play the 2 tutorials in the core rulebook to test it.



The first scenario is pretty straight forward and only uses the basic rules but it's already enough to get the changes with the actions, stats and tokens/cards/...


That done, we were ready (the book said so) to move onto the second scenario introducing the advenced rules which are the real deal and what you expect from Necromunda with the ammo rolls, damage rolls and those kind of fun things. It was also the opportunity to test a 2D version of the game with the zone mortalis rules.


The multiple activation rule is pretty cool and I have to say breaking the IGOUGO was mandatory at this point.


Although simple, the second scenario is already complex enough to show you how moement is important since you won't have immediate back ups.


Some good old habits like pinning opponents with grenades and those sort of things are still useful.


Now obviously a guy with a heavy stubber behind a cover in front of a corridor is someone you want to get rid of pretty early. ^^


Combat is a bit less forgiving now with the rules to count your friends as support and after getting rid of those awful combat rules from 40k 2nd ed.


All in all, I thought those 2 games were quite fun and very useful, they definitely helped me feel up to date for new games.

And that was nice because on friday night during our french Oldhammer event, we decided to play an impromptu game of Necromunda 2017 with 4 players.
We quickly built lists of roughly the same size and the Venator rules from May's WD were a big help to come up with a profile for Zoats. ^^


Amongst the participants we had Zoats (played with the Venator list):


A gang of chaos cultists (using the chaos cult rules from April's WD) :


A bunch of squats (using the venator lists once again) :


And I was playing bratts (using the Orlocks rules from GWII) :



The scenario we played was quickly improvised as well, bands all had to gather as many treasures as possible, treasures would pop on a 6+ (one action) for any model in contact to a junk pile. 
In hindsight I should have upgraded the roll to 5+ if  a model spent a 2nd action searching.



To make things a bit more fun, we obviously had explosive barrels and a very angry moohtant who probably was the model of the game since it took most leaders down; starting with my bratt leader...


Things got pretty personnal very rapidly between the zoats and the bratts for some reason.


And obviously because we had planned things so it would happen, barrels DID explode...


And the moohtant did continue its killing spree...


... Until it ran into a barrel of fuel and exploded ! (looting 2 treasures which made the scavvies win in the end... :/)


The chaos cultists got real close to winning the game but fate (and scavvies) had decided otherwise...



My thoughts on Necromunda 2017 for now are that it's the toolbox we've wished for for ages ! It still has the feeling of the loved we loved but with more opportunities to add actions of all sorts and creatures of all kind which is just perfect.

Flashback a week earlier, Cheetor/Sho3box, Theootovonbismark and I had a go at a game of Dracula's America (in Space).
The 2 of them had already had a couple of games with their bands so i'd be the challenger. Good thing for me, I decided to play my Ash Waste Nomads (which have been painted for this very purpose) and played as Dark Confederacy, giving me 1D3 zombies to begin with.



The game started with all 3 leaders and 2 body guards in the middle of a camp at the end of negociations with the others trying to exflitrate them. We drew some strategic plots and mine was to get my leader out alive (how fitting).


The others were close by but none of the leaders or their bodyguards could be activated in the first turn, allowing for back up to arrive...


I split my back ups in 2 groups with the guy and his carbine covering the ones with pistols.


The Sunblessed (zombies) would move in to draw attention by being closer in range to others (AKA meatshields/bulletmagnets).


My ganger with Rifle quickly climbed to the roof top to gain a good line of sight (with shooting bonus) on anyone who'd threaten his boss.


With some reinforcements, my leader felt a bit more cocky and tried to clean the camp...


The chaos agents were of course being total dicks by getting onto a roof top to cover the area...


And they thought summoning a giant 4 armed demonic sex offender was fun...


After soiling their respective underwear, the nomads fortunately managed to take the monster down before it could do too much damage.

The ratskins on their side decided to go all out and the skinwalker turned into a giant bear !


Taking the opportunity to wipe down the other ratskins, the pistoleros went into combat despite the threat of the champion holding a shotgun nearby...


None of the things the ratskin scout said about the nomads' mothers mattered at this point (and a lot of gravely exagerated anyway).


Things turned physical between the ratskin and the pistoleros but in the end, Suncho executed the champion without an hesitation...


The chaotic sniper was finally taken down, leaving a path for the centre of the camp.


So the nomads decided to strategically fall back...


Before their own sniper was taken down, putting an end to the game.




Now I have to say I deeply enjoyed Dracula's America. Simple rules, a fun activation system, and despite being the challenger, I managed to win !
The post battle sequence felt VERY familiar, it was like rolling for Mordheim so I was in a good place. I only regret the lay-out in this book is the way it is, plenty of thing smake little sense to me and can sometimes even be irritating but all in all it is stilla very good book I advise everyone to have.
It's the perfect balance between strategy and fun, it is simple without being dumb and it opens a vast array of opportunities.
I know we all wanted a frostgrave in space at some point but felt a little frustrated only the wizard would level up, NOT ANYMORE. Of course, Dracula's America has its own very intersting setting but it's open ended enough to allow for plenty of other things and just porting it into space without changing anything but the models proved it's a solid rule set.
I'm eager to try the expansions and have a real campaign now !

Next post will probably be about the scenery I did for last WE and I have plenty of cool things on the painting desk right now !

21 comments:

  1. Great post! The venator rules look so awesome, and Necro17 is looking more and more to becoming something similar to the old Rogue Trader (have you seen the trailer for the new Rogue Trade game, btw?) and Dracula's America looks fun as well. I'm really itching to try out both games.

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    1. I'm really curious to see what the new Rogue trader is like and about of course !
      I fully recommend Dracula's america !

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  2. I realy like those zone mortalis walls

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    1. They really do it and they're pre-painted so best of both worlds right ?

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  3. Great stuff mate - thanks for the write-up & awesome pics! I’m looking forward to giving the new Necro a run, but now really tempted by Dracula’s America too! So many games, so little time... What is a boy to do?!

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    1. It's a cheap book and a very good gaming tool, you'll love it.

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  4. Dracula's America is a good system.

    Necromunda 2017 looks promising too. I reckon that the Necromunda day was the most enjoyable of your visit :)

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    1. It was a very enjoyable day in a fantastic week really.

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  5. Looks great; though I have to disagree and say that 2nd ed 40K close combat rules are the best of all time.

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    Replies
    1. It CAN be fun but it often isn't really. ^^

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  6. I'd overlooked the Venator rules; perhaps I should revisit them.

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    1. They really are convenient although they might be pricey to reflect the flexibility.

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  7. It's great to see so many minis and terrain pieces that I've read about the painting and creating of in various blog posts together on the table-top, and they look pretty damn fine in action too.

    Dracula's America is looking all the more appealing with every battle report that I read.

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    1. It's a very good rule set I fully recommend ! I completely get the feeling about seeing projects finally merging into actual games. My gaming experience over the past years has owed a lot to to running it along some friends.

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  8. Wow. All that gaming packed in. Sounds like a great time, and lots of fantastic terrain and minis.

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    1. Fantastic time was had that's for sure !

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  9. Your description of the Newcromunda rules have me intrigued. I floated the idea of playing old Necro with the Monolith gang and they asked why wouldn't we just play RT? Now Lopez is painting Bratts, so we'll see if we get in some games at the next meet up. DAiS looks pretty cool.

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    1. We played both RT and New necro for our french Oldhammer event and honestly I advise you to test new Necro, it's missing some lists still but all in all, it's a better game than the previous one I reckon.

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  10. Wow, those were some super fun and good-looking games! Excellent to follow and read about mate.

    Necro17 is certainly something I would like to get into (Original being my all time fav GW game), but..... I wish they'd offer all the lists and rules in some sort of convenient (And affordable) compendium. I'm rather adverse to having to purchase umpteen expensive rulebooks just to have access to a full game. -__-

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    Replies
    1. I had this feeling as well at the beginning but after playing it a bit, I feel a little different now, I see it as a toolbox and just like in any toolbox, you don't really need all the tools all the time if at all, there's also quite a lot to process if you combine everything and each gang war books sums up the main info and where to get the info in the previous books whish is handy so I don't have much issues with that now.

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    2. Hrm, good to know. And with White Dwarf adding in rules for the Venators and Chaos and Genestealer Cults, I guess one could mish-mash their own Inquisimunda-type affair too in an effort to match their existing minis collection.

      Thanks for the input.

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